The HEA Cafe

I’m not a reality show fan.  I’ll watch Survivor, but that’s about it.  However, this summer my husband is working a good bit of overtime and I’ve was looking for a little light entertainment.  I’ve been a dancer most of my life, so I thought I’d take a chance on a show called ‘So You Think You Can Dance’.  I confess – I got hooked.  But what does this have to do with writing?

Plenty.

My favorite couple on the show was Joshua and Katie.  Week after week, they came out and danced from the heart, holding nothing back.  Their talent and love of the art was breathtaking.  Katie almost didn’t make the top twenty dancers, however.  When it came down to the last girl’s spot, it was between her and her best friend, Natalie.  The judges asked both girls to come onto the stage for the announcement.  Before the judges told who they’d picked, though, one judge asked both girls that if they didn’t make it would they try again the next year.  Katie said no.  Turns out she’d barely missed the top twenty the previous year and the emotional toll, at that time, seemed to be too much.  Her answer displeased the one judge so much he asked for a recount.  The judges sent the girls out and debated once again who should be picked.  Katie squeaked by on one vote but the decision could have easily gone the other way.

Katie’s self-doubt almost cost her a spot on the show and could have even ended her career if she’d given up dance after once again losing a top twenty slot.  Time and time again, I’ve seen the same thing happen to writers.  They get a bad critique or review.  Rejection letter after rejection letter arrives in the mail.  Your family starts to question whether the sacrifice is worth it.  YOU start to question whether the effort is worth it.  Why ripe your heart out and lay it on the page if no one else cares?

Because you must.  I believe we wouldn’t be given the desire, a desire strong enough to make us sacrifice sleep, television, free time, to write if we didn’t have the talent buried within to succeed.  We just have to dig deep enough to find it.  How do we do that?  We write.  Over and over again until we get it right.  The great critique, the acceptance level, the glowing review.  The feeling inside when you read the words you’ve written and thought “I can’t believe I wrote something that good.”

Don’t give up.  Don’t become your own worst enemy.  Believe in yourself and keep writing.  I believe Katie’s going to become a star.  You can too.

Ever since Mom and Dad made me watch Nadia Comaneci score her perfect 10s in Montreal in ’76, I’ve been hooked on the Olympics Games, and as Opening Day approaches, I find myself planning my life around the events.  This means finding a way to get a TV into the campground next week so I don’t miss anything. 

In the back of my mind is a little voice that keeps reminding me of the negative aspects to the Games.  The judging that hasn’t always been on the up-and-up, the athletes who find new and untested ways to chemically enhance their abilities, and of course the stories surrounding the host city and country itself.

And yet the Pollyanna in me keeps trying to muffle that voice because this is the part of me that wants to see the athletes do their thing.  This is the part of me that wants to believe each and every one of those athletes made it to the Games on sheer determination, dedication and God-given talent.  This is the part of me that wants to get teary every time the gold medal winner (whomever he or she may be) gets to stand on that podium and have his national anthem played.  What a feeling that must be!

If you’ve never seen the movie “The Cutting Edge” with DB Sweeney and Moira Kelly, I recommend you rent it.  It’s about a washed up hockey player and a prima donna figure skater who end up as pairs partners in the Olympics and of course fall in love along the way.  But the road to the Games (and each other’s hearts) is not an easy one.  You’ll laugh out loud at what a b*tch she is to him, and you’ll physically cringe when you see what she goes through to get one particular move perfected. 

It’s all about dedication, and dedication is what brings us together here at RWA.   We all want to write, and we all want to write well.   Can we all be Nadia Comaneci, Catriona Le May Doan or Michael Phelps? 

No, of course not.  Some of us (ahem) aren’t that flexible, coordinated or aquatically inclined, but that doesn’t mean we give up.  It simply means we find our own sport, our own genre, and we keep going.  Just like the athletes who train hour after hour, day after day, so must we.  Even when we feel like crap and we just don’t want to do it. . .we do it.  

Because we want to be on that podium one day and we want that gold medal (or RITA as the case may be)    

But just like the Olympic athletes, we’re not going to get anywhere by simply wanting it.  We need to go after it with both hands.  The Olympic Games are the perfect time to find new inspiration, new determination and new respect for all those who continue to push themselves every day in whatever field they are in.

So chalk up people – the uneven bars are waiting!!

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I’ve said before in this blog how much I enjoy the research for my books.  But there’s research, and then there’s research.

Some time ago I donated one of my books to the local Bar Association as a door prize (my husband’s an attorney).  The winner was a judge who’s also a life-long sailor, and he invited me to go out on his boat some time.  It was a much appreciated invitation, because I am an armchair sailor and there’s nothing like the real deal to make writing come alive.

We were finally able to arrange it, and this week I got to go out into the the Atlantic on the 32 ft. sloop Liberty with Captain Vic and his wife, First Mate Ellen.  And I’m not using those titles in jest–Captain Vic does have his captain’s license, as well as being a long time member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary, and it was clear from their interaction that his wife Ellen was used to crewing at his side.

I was well prepared with enough sunscreen to shield a vampire, my guaranteed-not-to-fly-off hat and my notepad. Oh, and ginger candy just in case.

But everything was perfect. We had to cut our outing a bit short because of the typical Florida afternoon thunderstorms. We wouldn’t have minded the rain, but the lightning’s another story.

I was given a tour of the boat, an explanation of the lines and rigging, a crash course on how to use the radio for emergency calls, and  we were underway.

Modern sailboats come equipped with small motors, which made it easier to get in and out of the marina, but once we were out on the water the wind took over and off we went, out of the inlet and over the bar that’s protected St. Augustine from raiders for centuries, but also kept it from becoming a shipping center. We sailed out into the Atlantic and I got to haul on lines, take the helm and learn a little about reading the compass and navigating out of the inlet and past the city.

We saw a number of Homeland Security boats out on the water, and it looked like they were doing exercises.  We also had a dolphin following us for a time when we were near the city walls.  I don’t know if she worked for Homeland Security or not.

The weather was perfect in the morning–light, steady wind, small chop, and nothing ahead but nautical miles of ocean. I also learned there was a sulfur spring off of Crescent Beach that I would have loved to visit, but we didn’t have time on this trip due to the afternoon storms.

When we brought the Liberty about and came back in to the city I saw the Castillo de San Marcos from the waterside, just as pirates, privateers, rum-runners and other nautical riff-raff have seen it for hundreds of years.

It was an absolutely splendid day, and I hope to do it again soon!  Reading books for research is all well and good, but being able to take a day to go sailing and call it work…well, that’s why I love my job!

I won a contest!!! My book Darcy’s Inheritance won first place in THE BEACON. Who’d of think??

 You see this book was one of those that seemed destined to fail. I wrote it for one market had it rejected. Fixed it for a second. Had another rejection. (Ouch). Revised it again and submitted it to Heartsong Presents and they bought it as part of a 3-book series that will be reissued as Montana Weddings in August.

I despaired at times that I’d ever get it into some sort of publishable form. I got so I hate the story (at times). Then the cover had to be redone. The editor agreed that the orginial proposal for cover art just wouldn’t work.

But the worst was yet to be. I finaled in THE BEACON. And a short time later the contest moderator contacted me to say the story seemed to end in an odd place. She gave me the page count on their copy–and the last 10 pages were missing. She graciously allowed me to send a complete copy going way beyond the call of duty.

And it won. (I entered 2 other contests and have no way of knowing if they got a story that ended in a very odd spot.)

I have come to expect that the stories I sweat and strain over and think will never work end up being much better stories than the ones that seem to come easy. Go figure.

Have you got your own stories of how a bad manuscript went good?

Historicals are my passion. If there’s any one thing that I love the best about romance, it’s a great historical. Some of my favorites include A Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught, Lord Scandalous by Loretta Chase, Whitney My Love by McNaught and the list goes on. One of the things I love the most about historicals is their magical quality. As I’m flying across the country this week, I’ll be revising my latest historical romance in preparation for submission to houses. The resurgence in publisher interest in historical romance is really wonderful for me as I love bringing stories like Mirage and Dangerous to readers.

For me, historicals are magical, I mean I know they’re fantasies, but that’s what I love about them. They transport me to another place and time where chivalry and honor are romantic, despite the realities of the time period. And I’m sorry, but tight buckskins covering hard thighs, a white shirt opened to reveal just a hint of a well-muscled chest—well, for me there’s nothing more seductive!

With the RWA convention in San Francisco this week, there will be a number of big name historical authors who will be present. If you’re familiar with Michelle Buonfiglio’s Romance by the Book blog, you know that she’s a huge romance fiction advocate. This Friday at the convention, she’s doing a radio show with several of Avon Books top name historical authors like Sophie Jordan, Lorraine Heath and Elizabeth Boyle and others.

Michelle’s Radio Show is set for Friday, August 1, 3:30 pm PDT If you’re on the East Cost, you can catch the show after work because we’re three hours AHEAD of folks in San Francisco (6:30 pm EDT). Click here link directly to the radio show where they’ve got this COOL reminder feature that you can set so you get an email prompt! Means you won’t forget. How sweet is that?

So dial in and ask some questions about historicals!! Besides, think about how cool it will be to be on Internet radio!